The first remotely controlled machine designed for technical survey, area preparation and agriculture:

a small pink revolution in HUMANITARIAN demining

At the moment we are working at LOCOSTRAv2, the updated version of LOCOSTRA. The work is undergoing within the context of TIRAMISU project.

Keeping the same vision we are improving LOCOSTRA machine! Please visit sub-pages to find what are we working on.

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On the 24th of April, LOCOSTRAv2 was presented at the 11th International Symposium Mine Action 2014 in Zadar. LOCOSTRAv2 is undergoing extensive pre-tests in Italy and is ready to be brought o the field

click here for the new pamphlet that will be presented at the 11th Meeting of State Parties in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 28 nov. - 2 dec. 2011.

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LOCOSTRA in South East Asia?

Trat province, Thailand

Emanuela is back from 6 weeks in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. During this time she had the chance to visit several mine action entities (mine action centres and NGOs) interested in buying LOCOSTRA.

Due to the overall presence of very thick vegetation, the prime use of LOCOSTRA would be in area preparation by vegetation cutting.

Thanks to LOCOSTRA agility (radious of curvature < 3m, achieved by double steering system) and FAE mulcher cutting capacities (grinding up to 200mm diameter trunks), LOCOSTRA plus FAE mulcher could be efficiently employed to selectively cut the vegetation before demining takes place, avoiding big trees protected by national law. Moreover, thanks to the low cost of deploying the machine (for short distances can be driven on board) and for running the machine (fuell consumption of 14 l/h when achieving a clearing rate of 1500m2/h), vegetation removal could be done on a large scale helping saving precious time.

The Thailand Mine Action Centre expressed desire for a demonstration of LOCOSTRA effectiveness in Thailand. We would be very happy to bring the machine in South East Asia and show its capabilities, but, due to the nature of the project (R&D project ended in May 2011), we are not able to cover the cost (approx. 12000€). If any of the entitiy that would be interested in using the machine is interested in sharing the costs of the demonstration, please contact us at snailaid@gmail.com or at the phone number +39 3331655089.

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The paper on blast resistant wheels test is finally online on the Journal of Mine Action.

Unfortunately, the printed edition contains mistakes, so please refer to the online version only, which has been corrected.

LOCOSTRA has been exhibited at the 8th International Symposium on Humanitarian Demining in Sibenik Croatia on the 26-28 of April 2011. As far as we could appreciate it, LOCOSTRA received a lot of interest by the participants.

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LOCOSTRA is now back in Italy, although not yet back to Pierre site. Hopefully within the next days we should be able to get it out from the 20" container with which it arrived in Genova by Messina lines.

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LOCOSTRA is on its way to the minefields in Jordan for the final test!

LOCOSTRA equipped with a trailer containing FAE mulcher, Ebinger large loop detector, 4 blast resistant wheels and a frame lplus hoist to mount on the tractor to lift heavy equipment from the trailer, has left Italy on the 10th of February 2010 from Livorno port. After a wonderful cruise with Grimaldi boat, it arrived in Tartous in Syria on the 15th of February, where LOCOSTRA and Emanuela got off.

Updates on Jordanian test in the blog section.

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Happy Birthday to LOCOSTRA project!!
The project started one year ago and the tractor is almost ready..

- The second test on the refined version of blast resistant wheel on the 12th of November 2010 (soon news on the webpage)
- The first test on remote control
- The agreement with FAE for testing one of their vegetation cutting tools with the tractor in Jordan
- An agricultural derived mine sweeping tools built by Mr Ross Macmillan at the University of Melbourne

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Welcome to Locostra (Low-cost Tractors for Humanitarian Demining) project co-funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade.

The main requirement we are trying to fulfill is to produce a machine costing 50.000€, safe and reliable to perform ground processing in humanitarian demining.